14. All the feelings and passions of men, as their appetites, desires and the rest, are strung together with their hearts; and therefore it is requisite to sever these heart strings with the weapon of a brave and strong heart (because the feelings are fostered in weak hearts and minds only).
15. Now break your sensuous mind by the power of your reasoning mind, and restrain its rage of running into errors; as they break the iron pegs by force of iron hammers (and remove one thing by another of the same kind—similia similibus curantur.)
16. So intelligent men rub out one dirt by another, and remove one poison by another poisonous substance; and so do soldiers oppose one steel by a weapon of the same metal.
17. All living beings have a triple form, composed of the subtile, solid and the imperceptible spiritual bodies; now lay hold and rely on the last, in utter disregard of the two former.
18. The solid or gross body, is composed of the hands, feet and other members and limbs; and subsist in this nether world upon its subsistence of food only.
19. The living being has an intrinsic body also, which is derived from within; and is composed of all its wishes in the world, and is known as the mental or intellectual part of the body.
20. Know the third form to be the transcendental or spiritual body, which assumes all forms, and is the simple intellectual soul; which is without its beginning or end, and without any alteration in its nature.
21. This is the pure turya state, wherein you must remain steadfast as in that of your living liberation; and reject the two others, in which you must place no reliance.
22. Ráma said:—I have understood the three definite states, of waking, dreaming, and sound sleep, as they have been defined to me; but the fourth state of turya is yet left undefined, and I beg you to explain it clearly unto me.
23. Vasishtha answered:—It is that state of the mind, in which the feelings of one's egoism and non-egoism, and those of his existence and inexistence are utterly drowned under a total impassibility; and the mind is settled in one invariable and uniform tenor of tranquillity and transparency.